2013.10.24 - Anomalies: Finale
Friday night in New York City. There are busier places in the world, but not nearby and probably not right now. People bustle around, going to clubs and theaters and baseball games (down in the Bronx the Yankees are kicking the butts of the Red Sox, much to the delight of the hometown crowd). Times Square is rocking and reeling. It is, in short, a typical New York evening, as fast and crazy as that entails. And then there's midtown. Midtown Manhattan is certainly the heart of the most populous city in the nation, adjacent to everywhere. This is what people think of when they think of New York. Rockefeller Center. Central Park. The Empire State Building... And speaking of the ESB, a man, a tall and gaunt young man in a trenchcoat and dark glasses walks out the front door with a case in his hands. He is flanked by two more young people -- a blonde girl of no more than sixteen who looks like she just stepped out of The Matrix, and a trim black man with a goatee in surplus military clothing. "It's time," Aberrant says to his followers. "Don't worry -- you won't suffer long." Marissa Sometimes has been trying to track down Aberrant. She's been having no success...and for right now, has given up and is letting the back of her brain work on the matter while she sits at one of the cafes around Times Square, finishing off a ham and cheese sandwich. The girl looks thoughtful. Okay, the front of her brain might be more than a little occupied with it too. Well, Carol was not on this case at all. She's just been cheating. See, when you can fly... it's easy to get a view of the game from the air. Aaaannd... she was raised in Boston, so as the Sox are losing, she tears herself away from the game, floating over the city with her Red Sox hat tucked back in the shoulderbag she was carrying. Yep, she's already stuffed her team jersey in the bag too. Why buy tickets when you can get the show for free, right? So she's in a kinda rough 'n tumble mood as she drifts towards Midtown, and her loft.... Vorpal has been prowling through the nearby area. It was part of his usual patrol- evening towards the weekend tended to be the most 'interesting' nights. He was not too far from the Empire State, and so far he had found nothing anomalous going on. "Maybe tonight will be a light night... if only!" he knew very well that uttering such things often tended to invite the gods of narrative... The brothers Von Gregory know nothing of the Aberrant or of his cause. Nor are they expecting any trouble tonight, or at least any mroe trouble than they might normaly get. Dresseed to the 9's they are after a fashion hot off the plane into New York and ready to hit the night life to see if it really is all that different than Lala Land. "New York." Starts one of the pair of identical twins. "New York." Continues the second one before they finish together, "So nice they named it twice." There is a more than good chance that this is their kind of town. The pair give each other matched grins as one of them holds up a top of the line Stark Phone and flips through it a few times looking for information. "Now just where shall we start?" Instead of waiting for another "message" from his alien benefactors to the whereabouts of Anomaly, Othello has been relying on his truck drivers and his unverworld contacts to be on the look out for someone meeting Anomaly's description. He has spent several weeks tracing false leads, and is beginning to wonder if he needs to administer an IQ test before he hires someone to drive a truck. Tonight, he was called away from the Stark Expo to see after getting a report another siting. Othello lets out a frustrated sigh, "Well, if this doesn't pay off, we can always try to talk to that tall blonde at the Expo." There's a murmur of worry at the trio's appearance at the front of one of the largest buildings in New York, particularly when the case is handed to the man in military gear. He opens the case wordlessly, eyes hidden behind sunglasses as dark as those of Aberrant himself, and the circuitry and components within cause more whispers, and then shouts. "Bomb! It's a bomb!" "Fear not, citizens!" cries Aberrant. "You have nothing to fear from us, for we are here to save you from those false heroes, those, dare I say, false GODS who take the adulation due to those who are true and real and right in this world! When we are done you will be unharmed! Your city will be undamaged! But those who would steal your trust will be gone! I have seen! I know! We are here to save you one last time!" It's not long before reports start to reach the police. Sirens start screaming through the city. People watch from behind the glass doors of the Empire State Building, not sure what to believe. Beverly Sunderland was home when the first images flashed on television. She knows Aberrant on sight, and, worse, she knows the girl with him as well. And so the young woman hugs her pit bulls, extracts herself from the pair of dogs, and, in an instant, is teleporting herself out over the city, her sunrise- colored clothing marking her as one of the city's many heroes. She lands in front of the building in a flash of light before it solidifies into human form. "Holly!" she calls. "Get away from him!" Bomb? Calmly, Marissa sets aside what remains of her sandwich and stands, ducking into the cafe to change. She figures she has time while Anomaly pontificates. He's the kind of villain to make long and involved speeches and build complicated death traps. Mentally, though, she's running through how to disarm various kinds of bombs. Because this is so where this is going. Long distance to Vorpal: Beverly chuckles. "Police and news channels are picking up on the appearance of Aberrant and his crew. And if Vorp's in the area he's no doubt going to hear the people yelling. Radios are awesome. So are cellphones. Carol however, gets calls on both. One benefit of having a bonafied SHIELD badge... you're never totally off duty...ever... ever ever ever. Good thing she already left the game. Or she would be -pissed-. "Danvers." she says courteously into her earbud. "Wait what?" she adds. "Slow down Ed... okay... Empire State... Bomb?" She rolls her eyes, "Okay, I'll keep the channel open like usual. Begin recording for official report purposes now." Then she reaches up and turns off her earbud. Meanwhile, back at SHIELD, Ed sighs and shakes his head, "Sir." he says, "She hung up rather than keep the channel open. Like usual." Anyhow, Carol turns and arrows towards the Empire State building, alighting upon one of the ledges up above the crowd. By this time, she's in her red, blue, and gold outfit and brandishes the SHIELD ID. "Look. I don't know -what- is going on here, but... whatever it is, it's over. Is that understood?" she asks. It is just luck, bad or good still remains to be seen, that the twins are near the Empire State building when a mad man starts ranting about saving people while waving around what people are assuming is a bomb. "Oh..." Starts one only to be finished by the other. "...joy." They shake their heads and move closer instead of away while speaking together. "Our first lunatic." While a woman appears out of nowhere and normal citizens run the twins just cant their heads to the right, and then the left while reaching out with their powers to see just what is inside of the case that Aberrant has with him. The pair take a good time studying the machine and getting to know it before doing anything just in case there is a dead man switch or something that would make problems if it suddenly topped working. After Carol Danvers show up, Othello decides to remain out of sight until something else happens. "But Captain," says the gaunt man as the blonde heroine (the better known blonde heroine, anyway) comes in for a landing. "I am doing this for you! For you, and all the others whose glory and whose appreciation has been stolen by the likes of -her-." A vicious, accusatory finger is pointed at Daybreak, who is even now approaching the girl. Slowly. "Oh, she has been a thorn in my side, but I would never harm her if she belonged to this world!" The military man sets the case down on the ground, and one can see that a countdown is ticking away. Ten minutes. Pryce can tell clearly what this is: a poorly constructed suitcase nuke. It's not that powerful, but will surely leave a hole in the city if it goes off. A dead man switch? This thing would go off if somebody sneezed at it. But when the bomb is set down, a glue-like substance starts to flow from the hands of the military man, thick and grey and coating him to the shoulders in seconds. He starts to gather it into a ball in his palms even as it continues to cocoon him. And as for the girl, she stares straight forward, even when Daybreak addresses her, apparently unseeing, unhearing, but at a pop, the snapping of Aberrant's fingers, she launches into the air as if hanging from wires. It's a gorgeous maneuver, like something straight out of a Hong Kong martial arts film, but the point of her shoe is aimed at Daybreak's head. "Belonged to this world? Oh that's rich. You do realize that I have my powers because of aliens playing Doctor Frankenzit with my body, right?" asks Carol as she stands there, focused and seemingly proud. She eyes the nuke and rolls her eyes, "OH.. no... I don't think I can... handle... a nuke." Yep, that's sarcasm, served totally deadpan. She watches the blonde girl flash through the air and points a hand her way. As she does that, a bolt of photonic energy... nowhere -near- full power, but with enough impact to hopefully throw the maneuver off, or at least make the girl abort the maneuver to evade the blast... is sent towards her. "Now now, behave. I said this is over, not that it's starting." she remarks as she simply steps off the ledge and descends to the sidewalk. And then there's a Mend, sneaking through the crowd, moving quietly and silently. Ooh. He put the bomb down...now, if she can get behind them while they're focused on the blonde with the nicely flashy powers. That's her plan...it's usually how she operates when working with those who have a lot of power. Let them draw fire, sneak up behind the bad guys, do damage. The purple cat's communicator went off, and he stopped to listen to what was being fed to him. Through the BSA feed, Vorpal hears the description of the suspect, and the existence of an explosive device. But it is the description of the man that gives him his first reaction. Aberrant. Who else? "This is Vorpal. I'm coming in to assist," he says, short and sweet, and dives off the building he had been using as an overlook. The cat cannot fly, but his powers are more versatile-- along his path, glowing trapezes appear in the air, which he uses to both speed up his trajectory and to swing over the street in his trek towards the Empire Estate Building. Perhaps not as swanky as Spider-Man, but the effect was similar. As the building looms larger, the cat can see the figures that participate in this new drama appear... but instead of opting for the direct route, he decides to be subtle and vanishes into thin air by activating his invisibility, just as he lands a little ways away from the commotion. That's when the glowing purple wall appears, hanging in midair the exact same way that bricks don't, and hopefully in a collision course with the woman who wanted to give Daybreak a Boot To The Head. The twins blinks and then in the middle of the nice tense moment start to laugh. "That is..." Starts one of them before the other picks up the threat of speech, "..the worst built bomb..." then the first to speak finishes off with, "..we have ever seen." The two shake their heads before both reaching out with their right hands and just dismissively gesturing at the bomb. "The timer is horribly wired, your firing device is way over designed, and I am frankly surprised that thing did not go off when you set it down. Did the plans you got to build that thing call for tinker toys?" Only one of them, the one on the right from Aberrant's perspective, can't seem to decide if he is ranting or going to die of laughter as he speaks. And while Pryce is deriding the construction of the bomb, he is also busy turning it straight off. He reaches out with his power to turn off the detonator, disconnect all of the power sources inside of it, and make sure that the thing can't go off even on accident. Othello sees that KitKat has arrive on the scene too, so he continues to hang back away from the action. Othello does decide to pull out his knives, if something changes. "No, Captain!" says Aberrant. "You misunderstand. This is no nuclear weapon! It is only designed to eradicate those who would take..." He blinks as so many things happen at once. A bolt of energy to deal with his minion. A wall of violet light to block her attack. And even as insane as the man is, he cannot help but see the way the bomb dismantles itself. His eyes close, and he hisses out a breath, twisting his head to one side and trying to calm himself before muttering, "Truly, nobody appreciates a visionary. "Very well. I would have removed myself from the world with all of these anomalies if you had left me to my own devices." He waves a hand, gesturing to encompass just about everybody -- his own allies, most of the heroes assembled against him, though not Carol. "But if I must save the world one corpse at a time, so be it! Hollywood! Armory! Deal with these fools!" "Don't hurt her!" Daybreak calls out to those attacking the blonde girl. "I know her! She's... he's controlling her!" This suggests to her, too, that he's also controlling the man, Armory, who is now completely coated in grey goo -- goo that has congealed into rigid armor plates all over his body, save for the ball that is clutched in one hand. And now he flings the ball toward the twins, though designed to fall short of them. When it hits the ground it will explode with some force. Hollywood's wire-fu kick is aborted when she realizes she's being fired upon. Her eyes flick left, right, and now she's moving in bullet time, twisting herself in midair to dodge (yes, dodge) the blast of energy from Carol. Unphased, she again launches herself at Daybreak, moving so quickly that the young woman has no opportunity to react before she finds herself being lifted into the air by her throat. And as for Aberrant himself, he is focusing his attention on the greatest threat. "You belong," he tells Captain Marvel. "I regret that I must do this." And then he attacks with his mind -- forcing upon her an image of her place in the universe. Great, big, huge universe. Tiny dot upon a dot reading 'you are here.' Mend, ignored. And she makes her move...trying to go for Aberrant from behind, while he's focused on the others, and grab him. It might not work. It might even get her killed, but he's not going to be expecting it and, to her relief, somebody dealt with the nuke. Wait. He...no. That's a nuke. Which means that Aberrant might be being just as manipulated as his minions. Worry. Later. The thing about Psionics is... they are nice and subtle, but... some folks have psi of their own. Sure, that doesn't mean Carol. Well, unless you count her flashes of Seventh Sense awareness of what is to come. She shakes her head as the blonde girl grabs Daybreak. "Look, just tell your unwitting minions to st.." and she stops mid-word as the flash of awareness floods over her. Her eyes narrow and it's a race against time as she flicks a hand towards the psionic assailant, even as his assault rushes in on her brain. A blast with enough power to rupture steel strikes low, aimed even in the split second of time she had, so that if it misses, it will only strike the ground and not bystanders. Ideally, it will strike just -as- she herself is struck. And then she is inside her own mind, staring into that cosmic space. Now, the thing is... mental powers don't always work the same way on her as they do on most humans because she... is not entirely human. She is a human physiology melded with a Kree one, an alien species... However, while inside her head... the man will see her not in her current costume, not in her civies, not in her old one- piece bathing suit with stripper boots, but as Binary, the cosmic entity that turned an entire planet to crystal once... raging against the control that is imposed upon her. It doesn't help her break free, but that is just the intensity of her emotion.... flaming hot. Pryce shakes his heads again. "The only thing visionary about that thing is how amazingly badly built it was." As a techno-kinetic the device is just an affront to the twins sense of how things should be. When the goo covered man throws the ball in their direction the twins both jump away from it and back as it drops to the ground before even reaching them. "I have.." Starts the one that did the ranting. "A bad feeling about this." The other one says just before the goo ball explodes. The explosion blows the twins off their feet and back a good ways leaving them just a little stunned for a second. When the explosive goes off, the cat identifies as Armory as the biggest immediate threat. He needs to take care of him before he can tackle Aberrant. So, he checks on the twins to make sure they're alright before fading into view, leaping towards Armory with a leaping kick. It's a rookie mistake, and that's why Vorpal decided to perform it... after all, Armory doesn't know he can teleport. Othello rolls his eyes slightly underneath his masks as he realizes that Aberrant looks to be gaining the upper hand, "Folly" Othello puts his knives away, and pull out his smoke bombs, and tosses them in the direction of Hollywood, and Abberant. He makes his way to the front of the building along with the others. Mend's attack on Aberrant knocks him away from Carol's attack, and, likewise, Othello's, at just the right moment, leaving a gouge on the ground, but the villain unharmed. At the same time, though, he's distracted enough that he loses his focus -- not completely, but enough to stop his attack on the SHIELD agent. Already he's recovering, turning his attention briefly on Mend before he concludes that she's not much threat. "Let me go, you anomalous @%!$&," he says with cold loathing. Armory is not a fast fighter. The armor that encases him makes him slow. But he generates the goop that covers him very quickly. Rather than forming a bomb with the stuff, now it extends from his arms in a pair of great blades. One of these is lifted toward the incoming Vorpal in hopes that he will impale himself upon it. Daybreak is rapidly running out of breath, kicking at the girl who's grabbing her, holding her in the air by her throat. The young and, notably, inexperienced heroine is panicking, because she can't breath and she doesn't want to hurt Holly -- she KNOWS Holly. They're friends! Or at least colleagues. But even as she kicks at Hollywood, she can see that there is little going on in the girl's eyes. Aberrant has complete control over her --and Daybreak doesn't know what to do about it. This is the moment when the blade strikes Hollywood, burying itself in her thigh. Hollywood doesn't even utter a pained squeal, so deeply under Aberrant's control is she, but she cannot maintain the position she's holding, and drops Daybreak even as she turns to deal with this new threat. Daybreak is pathetic and weak anyway. And also on the ground gasping in air. Okay. He just asked for it. Mend's knee is aimed in his...family jewels. As hard as she can. Because while she's not one to lose her temper, that should break the *rest* of his concentration quite nicely...as well as serving as revenge for the insult. She might not be able to hold him for long, but if he's stunned... Well, Carol has seen Vorpal in action in the past. Illusions can help against a mentalist. If they can't percieve a target, they have a hard time affecting said target. That's how Carol sees it at least. "Vorp! Switch dance partners!" she calls out as she clears her head. She points at Abberent and looks -just- as Mend's knee impacts. She cringes just a bit and shrugs, "If... that doesn't end his fight right now that is!" she adds before turning and taking what would normally be called a two-handed handgun firing stance. But she has her hands clasped together and after a brief moment of charging, she sends a pulse of power towards Armory. He seems to be the heavy hitter here, and Daybreak just got a breather, literally.... The cat disappears into thin air as he teleports and reappears behind Amory, landing into a crouch and then doing a sweep kick behind him to sweep his feet out from under him. He's hoping that that armor is heavy enough to put his balance off... the harde they fall and all that. "Can't, he's a telepath of sorts. Illusions are worthless with telepaths," Vorpal calls out. Illusions were useful against people who couldn't sense minds, but if you could sense minds then you knew exactly where everybody was.. and wasn't... at the same time. While his illusions were infused with his Willpower, someone capable of doing what Aberrant did would be able to immediately pinpoint the real mind from the illusions. Pryce takes a second to get up, he is not used to the whole fighting thing but he has had things blow up in his face before so he knows how to roll with the boom and pull his heads together afterwards. "Thats it." One of the twins says while they both stand and reach for pockets. The other one says, "Anyone with super hearing might want to cover their ears now." That said the twin off to the left throws a small device at the armored guys feet that starts emitting an ultrasonic frequency designed to throw off the inner ear of any normal human within 5 feet of it in a way that gives extreme vertigo. The other one, points a gun like object at the armored man and fires several pellets at his hands that when they hit something will expand into a foam that will quickly harden to something as tough as brick. Seeing that Mend's is raising her knee to at Abberant, Othello pulls out his pistols to fire an energy blast at Abberant's, making sure if Abberant does he teleport trick, the blast does not hit Mend. Othello calls over his shoulder at DayBreak, "We highly suggest you remember how you felt being trapped in a dark box, and get angry, and fry your little playmate." Yeah... a knee to the groin is a good way to take down most people. Probably not Armory, 'cause that guy's got armor coming out the wazoo, but Aberrant? Dude is very poorly protected. Very. At least at the moment. His attention is split three ways, seeing through three sets of eyes, and he's being touched by an anomaly! He doesn't even get his thigh up to deflect the hit. Aberrant is now on the ground, gasping, retching. He may well puke. As for Armory and Hollywood, their movements are becoming sluggish and uncertain. Not only does Vorpal knock down Armory, but the sonic device (which probably wouldn't have done a lot with Aberrant controlling the body efficiently) has him trying to cover his armored ears with his now foam-encased hands. And Hollywood stops in place, staring, blood rushing down her leg. Othello's blast strikes where it's aimed, just doing that much more damage to Aberrant. "Noooooo..." wails the would-be genocidal madman. His voice is a bit higher than it was before. Daybreak is moving toward Hollywood, indeed, having ripped off the sleeve of her uniform. But not to attack. "I know you're in there, Holly," she says as she crouches by the girl. "He's weak now. Come on. Shake it off." She starts tying the sleeve around Holly's leg, cinching it tight so the girl won't bleed out. Marissa Sometimes is going to do her best to keep Aberrant pinned. "That was a nuke. I'm trained in bomb disposal, and I know what the pieces all over the floor are of," she hisses. "Were you lying, or did somebody tell you it was something else?" Oh, this might have just gotten way too complicated. When the notice of the explosion came from the twins, Vorpal leapt back and created a fluffy pair of earmuffs---purple, which he quickly shoved over his ears before the sonic explosion took Armory down. He turns from the controlled hero to face Aberrant... who is being pinned by ... Marissa! "Good job there..." he says, taking the earmuffs off. With Aberrant down and Hollywood apparently off her strings along with a downed Armory, now all that was left was to deal with the man who had made their lives hell. "...I'd answer the lady. Unless you want an anvil to the jollies instead of a kick." The coup de gras for Armory is the blast from Captain Marvel. The stream of energy obliterates his armor, leaving a man in military garb writhing on the ground. Sure, when he recovers he'll be able to regenerate that armor -- but chances are, all things considered, he's not going to be aiming his ire at the gathered heroes. Hands smoking, like a plasma weapon that just discharged, Carol turns her attention towards Abberant again. Her red helmet fades away, leaving her honey blonde hair flowing in the breeze. "Nuke eh?" she asks Mend before bending to scoop up what must be the weaponized fissionable material, or at least the container that would hold it. She turns on her earbud and says, "Ed. Danvers. I have potential fissionable material in hand. Requesting a disposal team." She stands over the nearly retching Abberant, "And anti-Psionic restraints." The twins for all they can put on a cool and collected front that could give the disinterest of a cat a run for its money. In unison they speak, "Really there is no call for throwing around explosives in a public place. Just be glad we have our nice toys on us today." They practically sniff the air as they brush dust off of their clothes and check to see if there are any tears that mean they are going to have to replace what they are wearing before they actually hit a club. "Young one, be careful he can still teleport himself away." Othello pulls back his fist as he tries to start rabbit punching Aberrant. But really, Aberrant is in no place to teleport. His former minions are coming out of their stupors, though Armory's still having trouble with that sonic attack -- not to mention the impact of Carol's blast, which, despite having been armored when it struck, still stings. Rabbit punches will keep him down, but what really needs to happen now is the arrival of SHIELD's anti-psy restraints. Holly collapses as she comes back into her own mind. Her jeans are soaked with blood, but the makeshift tourniquet that Daybreak has put in place will keep her from bleeding out. She starts crying loudly. Really, she's just a kid. Aberrant manages to squeak out a reply before Othello attacks him, though. "It is... no nuke. Will... destroy anomalies. Let us die!" Vorpal narrows his eyes. "I have recently become engaged, and I have no intention of dying. It plays havok with the registation process..." the tiger raises his hands, realizing that rabbit punches would only so much. He had no idea when the suppressors would arrive, so he does the next best thing. Something he has been dying to do for ages, actually. An anvil-- a small one, appears in the air over Aberrant's head. It is small enough that it would knock him out.. perhaps even cause a concussion, but nothing worse than that. "I'll send you a postcard from the honeymoon." And with that, he lets the small anvil drop. Eyeing the others, Carol just nods, "Okay, can anyone transport folks here? These two are going to need medical aid, as well as some therapy. I'll make sure SHIELD covers the cost, on my word. I need to remain here for when the restraint team arrives, but if anyone can take these two.." she indicates Holly and Armory.. "To a medical facility, and then stay on hand to make sure things don't get out of hand... I would very much appreciate it." That said, she crouches down before Abberant, hefting the core of the 'bomb' in her hand. "This -is- radioactive. Don't worry folks!" she calls out. "I'm absorbing the radiation harmlessly!" And she looks back to Abberant, "But..." *wham, anvil*... "Or that." she adds as she stands back up. Pryce just stares at Aberrant and then shakes his head. One of the twins, the one that did the ranting earlier steps close to him and sighs. "You were sold a bill of goods man, that thing may only barely be a suitcase nuke but it is one. Vincent over there," He says while gesturing at the other twin who is moved to keep an eye on the armored guy holding his pellet shooter thing at him. "Techno-kinetic, can feel machines with his mind and at worst that thing would have taken out a huge chunk of New York and at best just done the dirty bomb thing and turned half of Manhattan into glow in the dark green monsters." The other twin holds out a small device towards anyone that wants it. "I have a few more of the Sonics, if he can teleport these things should keep his inner ear too screwed up to be able to do it. Probably. Would be interesting to test it at least." Of course then the anvil lands. "Or we can Wiley Coyote the guy." Marissa Sometimes can't help but laugh at the anvil. It doesn't stop her from producing a set of the plastic cuffs and applying them to Aberrant. Won't stop him teleporting, but it does mean she doesn't have to sit on him quite so hard. "Thanks. Couldn't have got him without somebody to draw their fire." "Vorpal," says Daybreak. "Can you help me get these two to the hospital?" She's got one arm around the smaller blonde girl, whose leg seems to have stopped gushing -- but she's definitely going to need stitches. She nods her thanks to Captain Marvel for taking point on this. Aberrant, of course, is out like a light. And if he has a concussion, well, he kinda deserves it. Othello thinks super strength punches to the back of Anomaly's head does a lot a damage, but Othello is not going to complained about anvil being dropped on Aberrant's head either. Othello looks down at Abberant and says, "Folly, you were no savior." Othello makes his way from the building. "Sure, I can help... I'll take the big guy and you take her." He looks at the twins and throws something at them. A little card. "Let's do lunch, boys. Good job..." The cheshire cat bends down to pick Armory up, and a glowing platform appears in mid-air. He's taking the expressway. "Alright, then... all aboard for the Wonderland express." Pryce catches the card out of the air to look at it. "A super hero..." "...with buisness cards?" They ask each other before shrugging. "Ciao, we'll do lunch!" THey offer at the same time because, well, they are from LA and that is how you respond to that. Category:Log